Friday, February 8, 2008

APES Biological Energy Flow / Nutrient Cycles - Shope

2 basic principles of ecosystem sustainability
o energy must be obtained from the sun & cycled through the system
o nutrients needed for survival and reproduction must be recycled


Vocabulary


trophic
o nutrition or feeding level
o trophic levels, food chains, pyramid of energy flow

GPP (Gross Primary Productivity)
o the total rate at which producers are able to convert solar energy

NPP (Net Primary Productivity)
o the remaining biomass (energy) that is available after the producers have used energy for their own respiration

producers or autotrophs
o photosynthetic organisms
o first trophic level
o plants, algae, phytoplankton

consumers or heterotrophs
o herbivores, carnivores, scavengers, detritivores, saprophytes, decomposers

detritivores (debris)
o organisms that feed on partially decomposed matter
o ex.: crabs, termites

saprophytes
o plants or fungi that feed on decomposing matter

decomposers
o bacteria & fungi that break down organic matter into the chemical components

2 comments:

kaprisweet_17 said...

you = beast
hear you rawr!!

oh and ive found some sites that should help with the vague descriptions for the cycles:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/102/ncycle.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/102/ecosystem.html&h=441&w=640&sz=7&hl=en&start=18&tbnid=jvox2emPNZJiPM:&tbnh=94&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnitrogen%2Bcycle%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den

that one is pretty much the beast!

~fresh42jazz~ said...

*grins*

I was going to post the rest, then I realized that it's all chemical formulas and random arrows pointing everywhere. So... I didn't bother typing it. ;)

I don't know if you have it or not, but the Barron's guide has a bunch of really good diagrams as well. I'll still do poorly, but that's just because it's APES. :)